Rock Borders - A Subtle Change

On a chilly winter morning I reshaped the line of moss rocks along the gravel strip and it was not hard to do. 

In fact, I loved being out on a sunny morning, in my garden clothes, on my knees, changing things.

The day was cold, barely 40 degrees but it was still and sunny. The top inches of dirt had frozen overnight, but the rocks were easily moved with a claw to pry them up, and leather gloves. 

In an hour I was done, happy with the result. Not even that dirty. 

I had rocks left over to extend the potting bench curve out along the bottom of the fence.

The result is subtle, just a slightly altered shape but it makes a difference in the visual flow of my tightly compact garden.

Instead of wrapping close around the crabapple, the moss rocks now skirt it and end at the lower patio. The vee between the flagstones now draws the eye from the circle garden down into the lower patio, no longer blocked off by rocks wrapped around to the side. 

It's a small change and just a little opening between the two areas, but it makes the two garden spots a bit tied together. I still like the idea of planting creeping sedums and speedwells around the rock border to soften it a bit, particularly at the endpoint.

I had rocks left over and made a simple border along the bottom of the fence. At first I placed them close to the foot of the fence, planning to plant outside that border, in the gravel. 

Then, in the afternoon I went back out and changed the rocks to come out away from the fence. That will allow planting inside the border.

(This is why I can't hire installers -- I change my mind and re-do things after a little consideration.)

There isn't much space in this curve for the agastache and Rocky Mountain penstemon and verbascums I am planning. They'll have to be placed right up against the rock border -- the vine grows way out from the fence in summer.

Now the corner where the peony is planted extends out in a bend toward the lower patio. 

The rocks had curved sharply in by the peony to the junction of fence and stucco wall. It's not so sharply defined now, and the wall and the fence tie together.

Still need to tinker with the placement of a few rocks
and the curve shape but I know it's easy to do now

This rock border and plantings won't hide the fence (my original plan for a long time) but it ties the abruptness of the fence and stucco wall to the ground. It visually brings garden and fence and gravel and patio together seamlessly.

And I really like how the sweep of rock border coming from the garage down to the patio stops, then picks up again in the same arc running toward the aspens. 

It's very subtle, but the feel of it is there.

I have so little space to work with for a design, and what I have is very long and narrow. My first impulse was to separate the length with defined and bordered "rooms". 

I bounded the upper circle garden between garage and patio, left the patio flagstone area as a little square, then the deck and the problem of looking at the blank wall of fence, then the planted area under the aspens. 

And finally the step down to the potting bench work area. All separate and defined.

But I like this better. A long arc of garden plantings running the length, interrupted at an angle by the open flagstone area, but continuing on.

I like the idea of tying it all together, narrow as it is. This very subtle reshaping of these rock borders makes a difference. Can I get some plants in there to tie together even more and have something to look at besides the rocks?

I had a lovely time outside doing some meaningful garden work. In January!

🌞

And because I am experimenting with A. I. now, here is an artificial photo of what the new planting between the lower patio and the potting bench curve might look like:

A. I. interpretation with Rocky Mountain penstemon,
Southern Charm verbascum and Black Adder agastache.
They won't all bloom at the same time though.

Really, I could keep doing this all day -- another iteration of the new border, this time with Hot Lips salvia included:

Salvia Hot Lips with the penstemon and agastache and some
Southern Charm verbascums. A. I. interpretation.

More Thoughts on Rocks

My previous post dithered on about planting creeping sedums and speedwells spilling around the moss rocks in the border by the gravel walkway. 

I like that idea.

But what if I altered the shape of the moss rock border to more naturally mirror the gravel strip as it runs under the crabapple? 

It bothers me a bit that the stones circle around and cut off the mulched area from the flagstone patio below. 

I had originally wanted two distinct areas -- a mulched garden and a separate flagstone square, but now I think it would flow better to have them connected.

It would eliminate the sharp curve and give the trunk of the crabapple just a bit more breathing room.

Like this, with the rocks moved over to terminate below at the lower flagstone square:

It's job, but I can move those rocks over. I'd actually wind up with some extras, removing those that go all the way around to the fence.

The rocks that circle around behind the Japanese forest grass and lambsears as the rocks connect back to the fence would be eliminated. 

That area is raised up, so without the rocks it would remain a slightly raised berm, but would no longer be cut off from behind. I'd take out the gravel on the patio side, making that little raised berm all mulch.

I'd have those few extra moss rocks to do something with. I had moved several a while back to create the echo of a second circle and that has worked well. 

I could add to that, extending it for a little more impact. It would be easy enough to do.

Or . .  more complicated to do --- I came across an idea to end the small gravel downslope in a tiny fake pool of rocks. Could I use the several extra moss rocks to arrange a little dug out drop plus a circle of stones just where the gavel meets the flag patio stones?

That might be too fussy, too small and too hard to execute. But as long as I will be on hands and knees wrestling rocks anyway, I might try this.

The Circle and Rock Border

I wanted a central focus like this.

These were the inspiration ideas I had for the open area I created when the Spanish broom was taken out in late 2021. 

I wanted a circle with an upright hardscape element in the center and small but lush plants around its base. 

I used the birdbath to start for my central item, but then switched to a shallow white bowl in the center.

Then I wanted lots of spiky upright plants with lots of texture and color differences in an outer ring.

Kind of the idea.

I also wanted a moss rock rough chunky border, but I didn't have enough room to create the big outline of rocks defining the circle as this photo showed. But I wanted the elements.

I thought I could create a border that would nestle into the strip between the mulched new area and the bit of gravel lining the walkway, with plants spilling over them.

I thought I might have it look something like the richly planted rock border in this photo below -- plants not only behind the rocks, but in front of the rocks and tumbling over them.

Wow.

That hasn't happened. So far my rock border is just a bare line of stones. 

The stone border element is there, but not integrated into the design.

I like the design, but when Jeronimo installed the new garden he didn't add much soil, so the planting area is sunk below the rocks a bit, not rising up behind them. 

Newly installed.

It's hard to create a draping effect with any plants when they are sitting below the border of rocks. And I haven't really added anything that could tumble around the rocks. My plants are arranged in a circle away from the border.

This line of single stones needs something.

I am in the process of adding more upright perennials behind the stiff little circle (and I simplified the center to be just a carpet of thyme and a white bowl), but I also need to jam some low growing things along the edge of the rocks. At least in places.

The outer ring of plants haven't taken off yet. I'm planning more.

And I can do that. 

There are several pockets between stones 

I can add a couple handfuls of compost and dirt in the tiny spaces and let the creeping plants grow over and around the moss rocks and out into the gravel (just a bit . .  the gravel area is not big and I may have to keep after creepers that overtake).

I'm still waiting for things to grow in the circle and fill in. At the front edge near the rocks I have a Little Lemon goldenrod on one side and a low pineleaf penstemon on the other.

The idea was to have those plants spread out over the rocks and I still hope they will some day.

But adding creepers to the rock border in some spots will help the more upright plants tie together with the border and perhaps look more natural. Here are three I could easily plant in pockets around the stones:

I have the blue spruce sedum and can plant cuttings, I can get Angelina sedum from HCG.
The blue woolly veronica is also from HCG (and I need to add one to driveway strip).

This beautiful photo below shows more depth to the rock border -- several rocks more randomly scattered together rather than just a line of single stones. But can I get the same effect?

Can I do this? Or something similar?

Okay, look at what Gemini A.I. showed me:

A. I. interpretation

Stiff and awkward composition, and photographed in January, but I like it!

Icy Rose

We've finally had some real winter weather these past couple days. After a long, mild, unseasonably warm fall sliding into winter, snow and ice and temperatures in the teens have arrived. Brr.

My poor ice covered rose.

The canale above drips melted snow right down onto it and then the waterfall freezes at night.

I had planned to do some trimming this winter on that side and shape this scrambler a little better, but it looks like icy winter is doing some of the work for me.

For a couple years I've wanted to train the canes to go up over the door canopy to the left. How great would that be? I even scoped out half trellis constructions that could rest against the lower edge of the canopy to make that happen.

But I think now that it would be a mistake. It's clear the ice in winter would mangle that side of the rose.

Instead, I need to get out there when it warms and trim off the left side canes. Then I need to encourage the remaining stems to reach over the fence on the right. It needs to grow out along the fence top toward the Kintzsley's Ghost vine further over. 

That will look more natural, and it's what this Red Cascade rose wants -- it's a scrambler, not a climber.

Moving Rocks at My Age

I am too old to be moving rocks, but on the same still winter afternoon in January that I installed the birdhouse pole, I moved two flagstones over. I put them next to the birdbath, making a half circle.

The center stone which doesn't quite line up with the big one to the left, actually looks fine from above and the Turkish speedwell there at the junction will soften it.

The lower patio is more defined now.

The two stones flank the birdbath now. They had been oddly placed along the side of the deck -- I think I wanted the suggestion of a walk. But they finish off the square of the lower flagstone patio better now.

Around the birdbath now  --- before they had run along the edge of the deck. Sort of.

I pried them up with a cobra claw without too much fuss and I didn't prepare a flat surface for them by the birdbath. I just scraped away some of the gravel and plunked them down. 

They are stable and even. No wobbles. Huh. I thought it would be much harder. Even so, what am I doing at age 76 moving stones? 

One mishap -- an irrigation feeder line got damaged. I'll have Jeronimo fix it in spring. Meanwhile I marked it with a metal stake.

Alliums will remain next to the birdbath on the left, but I had already taken out the orange agastache on the right. Now, with the flagstones there I may place a pot, or leave it open.

I am planning to put in some plants all along the fence to the right of the birdbath, just at the edge of these newly placed stones.

Installed the Birdhouse

I got a tall, sturdy shepherd's crook from Wild Birds Unlimited and on a still, quiet January afternoon I installed it in front of the fence and hung the decorative birdhouse.

It's not much to look at, but it's surprisingly better than the juniper I had there, trying to hide the long fence rather than simply bringing the eye forward with a focal point.

It's still an ugly brown vine and much too much of it in winter, but the birdhouse works to give me something to look at.

I have a plan to plant up the lower strip (and include the stump), and when the vine greens up and the plants come in this will be good.

It's too close to the fence and the vine will swallow it in summer. I need to move it out a bit.

Which will be easy enough to do. The pole went into the ground easily. I did have to install it between big irrigation main lines running there and thick hard vine roots. When I move it forward a bit I'll have the same concerns, but can find a spot to get it in.

I put two heavy rocks around it to stabilize it. 

The birdhouse is heavy and the pole is very tall, maybe 7 or 8 feet (and swivels on two tiny screws midway up) but it's straight enough and not too wobbly.

I like it.

I can see it from the living room, as part of a whole scene now that includes the lower patio with its brown urn, the birdbath, and then the birdhouse extending toward the garden. It's more cohesive.

The view of the fence from my bedroom is not impactful, it's just a little birdhouse and a fence. But it works in a quiet, unassuming way. 

It's something to see, and it breaks up the flat expanse of vine and fence well enough.

I removed the smaller shepherds crook with the plastic heart -- that was too much now with the new pole and decor. It wasn't expensive and in fact it came broken.

We'll see if the pole turns out to be sturdy enough in the wind. 

In any event, I do need to move it forward to be out away from the vine in full leaf, but may wait now til spring.

A Little 2026 Inspiration

This is lovely. Colors, forms, shapes and placement, all combine beautifully. 

As I think about punching up the circle garden, or extending the strip by the fence from the birdbath to the potting bench curve, I can keep this combination in mind. 

Dark purple upright penstemon contrasts with the blue fescue grass and bright yellow sulphur buckwheat (as if mine could ever get to that size?!)  I have some of these elements already or am planning some:

> In the circle garden I am adding a dark purple May Night salvia, and I already have the yellow flowering buckwheat (and I am adding more). In the strip under the fence I am adding a division of my Black Adder agastache, and a Rocky Mountain penstemon. Saturated purples.

> I can unpot the 3 blue fescues and use them in combination as it shows here. The cool blue tames the bright yellow and deep purple.

> The bright blue flax in the background is nice. I have a couple 'Appar' flax plants started around the garden, could add more.

> There's a bit of driftwood tucked in among the plants for structure, I can use my tree stump for a similar effect 

My biggest issue in creating a nice garden is combining things. I have one of this and one of that lined up along the fence next to each other or arranged stiffly in the circle and it's hard for me to get a natural looking arrangement going. This inspiration photo is a help.

It's loose but not messy. Can I create something similar?

The Green Wall

After all these years I still struggle with this unresolved area. It's the expanse of green wall that I see whenever I enter my bedroom. It's the view out the slider, across the deck. It's a big solid nothing that ends abruptly at the stucco wall.

In winter, for a full six months, it's an expanse of ugly brown. 

When I had the patio table and chairs and umbrella on the lower level, they filled the space in front of the vine and it didn't look so long and unbroken. There was form and height against the fence. But it wasn't workable -- too cramped and we never sat there, so I removed it.

Now the umbrella and expanded seating area fills the upper level nicely, but the wall of vine is more visible. I have some nice things planted in front of it on the left side but it's not much.

And on the other end -- the expanse I see from my slider door -- I've had a narrow upright juniper for visual height and interest. But.

The first one, Skyrocket, was nice at first but got too open and unwieldy and scraggly. 

I took it out. I planted a Blue Arrow in its place, and hoped it would get full and dense and upright like Greg's had been.  And blue tinged.

** Now I think it was a mistake to put another juniper there. I took it out today**

The area between the deck and the vine is a cramped 6 feet wide. I don't want something bulky right by the deck edge that blocks any access around to the back of the deck

No tree, juniper or otherwise, narrow or conical, is going to fit and still let me pass by, even a limbed up small tree.

And I want to tie the birdbath strip to the corner of the wall where the potting bench curve garden starts. Right now between the two it's unresolved and empty and the stranded juniper there did nothing.

The two rescued flagstones I put there don't do anything either and should be moved to surround the birdbath base.

> So .  . I need an open path and unobstructed area plus an open view of the aspen trunks and back garden.

> At the same time I want something to look at against the fence.

Something. 

From this view last summer you can barely see the spindly juniper but as it gets larger it will interrupt the line of sight to the shady back garden. A solid bulky tree, even tall and upright, is too much. I had to take it out.

Okay, what can I put smack in front of the wall of green to look at from inside the bedroom? Not another tree or dense shrub. And I don't want more containers scattered about in my gardens.

(One answer would be something to look at on the empty corner of the deck, but whatever I tried there -- containers, the peacock, a stump and birdhouse -- all looked silly. I like the free floating edge of the deck and want to keep it open.)

The cute birdhouse would work -- but it's very heavy and needs a strong support, not a shepherd's crook. I already have the plastic heart on a pole hanging between the birdbath and brown urn.

But the heart looks a lost there smack in the center. It's small and the thin metal crook disappears against the vine, making the heart look oddly suspended in air. 

👉 Next summer hang a basket with blue lobelia instead of the heart-- maybe get a taller shepherd's crook as well and move it over toward the urn so it's not so rigidly centered. Stage the potted hakonechloa where the crook was, elevated a little.

On the right side hang the birdhouse above. Maybe add a division of my Black Adder agastache and a nice stand of Southern Charm verbascums. Both plants are vertical and upright, but not tall.

It's more open, it flows toward the garden on the right and there's some color. The birdhouse needs to hook to a sturdy arm on the fence and be out away from the thick foliage of the vine.

Hook for hanging birdhouse off fence  / and this one too.

I had it on an old wobbly wooden brace at one point, but the brace fell off. I think the birdhouse against the vine, having on a better hook, is the answer to what I'll do for visual interest against the wall of green.

I really do not want to add a shrub or tree -- too stiff and bulky. And I do not want more pots scattered about the gardens. So a small stretch of agastache and verbascums might be nice at the foot of the vine, with the birdhouse above. Nothing to look at in winter other than the birdhouse and stump, though.

Southern Charm

The verbascums are Southern Charm hybrids (from Bluestone) and they are pretty but quite small, only about two feet tall. But the foliage is impactful and the flower stalks are spiky, upright and very cottagey looking. They can be planted in that area where there are no emitters. They want dry gravelly conditions.

They are nothing like the Frankenstein forms of the wild mullein growing in front!

Frankenforms

I like the idea of tying the birdbath strip to the other end by the potting bench curve. 

I like not fussing with pots or anything structural other than a little birdhouse on the fence. It's a quieter look but nothing much to look at out the slider door, especially in winter.

Here's what Gemini A.I thinks this planting would look like in front of the fence: 

Nice. I might see if I can unpot one or two of the blue fescue grasses and plant them at the feet of these tall perennials. I like the blue accents in this shot. The grasses have been potted up for a few years and should be big enough to handle transplanting to this strip.

But once again I am creating a garden design that is small and busy -- little plants mixed together. See my prior post, lamenting exactly that. And here I am taking out a singular tree and substituting . . . um, lots of stuff.